57% of Republicans View Ted Cruz Favorably

From RasmussenReports.com, 12/16/13 –Freshman Senator Ted Cruz of Texas may not be popular with the Republican establishment following his 21-hour Senate floor speech against the president’s health care law last week, but he’s a favorite of most GOP voters.

Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Likely Republican Voters have a favorable opinion of Cruz, including 30% who view the senator Very Favorably. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 19% of Republicans view Cruz unfavorably, with seven percent (7%) who view him Very Unfavorably. Another 16% of GOP voters have never heard of him. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

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Longtime GOP Senator John McCain was highly critical of Cruz’s speech. A March survey found that 52% of Republican voters view McCain favorably, with 16% Very Favorable. Forty-six percent (46%) share an unfavorable opinion of the Arizona senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee, including 12% with a Very Unfavorable one.

Among all voters, 31% view Cruz favorably, while 40% share an unfavorable opinion of him. This includes 16% with a Very Favorable view and 30% with a Very Unfavorable one. Twenty-one percent (21%) have never heard of the Texas senator.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on September 28-29, 2013 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Cruz is overwhelmingly popular among voters who consider themselves part of the Tea Party movement: 79% of those voters view the senator favorably, with 63% who view him Very Favorably.

Among voters not affiliated with either party, 27% view Cruz favorably, 37% unfavorably, and 26% have never heard of him.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of the Political Class share an unfavorable opinion of the first-term senator. Among Mainstream voters, Cruz earns favorables of 36% and unfavorables of 36%, with 20% who’ve either never heard of him or are undecided.